Delenn has overseen the coming together of the nonaligned
worlds, the Centauri, the Minbari, the Narn, and Earth into a new
Interstellar Alliance, and
Sheridan has been elected its first president. The Alliance, which
among other things promises to share advanced technologies like
artificial gravity with Earth, is a confederation whose members
retain most of their sovereignty, aside from certain rules of
conduct. Its armed forces are the Rangers and the White Star fleet,
and its temporary headquarters are on Babylon 5 until permanent
facilities are built in the Minbari city of Tuzanor (novel
"To Dream In the City of Sorrows.")

Sheridan only used 30 telepaths out of 100 to attack the
destroyer fleet
("Endgame.")
The rest, including Bester's lover Carolyn Sanderson, remained on
Babylon 5.

Clark has been succeeded by President Susanna Luchenko
of the Russian Consortium.

Ivanova has been promoted to captain and reassigned to
shake down an experimental new Earth military vessel, a Warlock-class
destroyer, for one year.

Londo has been asked to return to Centauri Prime; the
Regent is ill and after his death the royal court plans to name Londo
the next Emperor.

Garibaldi and Lise are together, and she has apparently
inherited some or all of William Edgars' money.

Sheridan and Delenn have been married.

Sheridan's father has been released; Clark's forces never
captured his mother.

Delenn's reply to Lennier's comment about unrequited love
can be read either of two ways: that she is indeed oblivious to his
feelings for her
("Ceremonies of Light and Dark")
or, more likely, that she loves him too, albeit not
in the same way she does Sheridan. The latter interpretation seems
to have been lost on Lennier if true.

Sheridan knew about the telepath virus
("The Face of the Enemy,"
among others.) How many more have been told? Will its existence
become common knowledge, and if so, will the fact that it's known to be
possible prompt enemies of the Corps to start trying to duplicate it?

Bester goaded Sheridan about Garibaldi by telling him
that only a scan performed by a member of Psi Corps would be
admissible in Earth court if Garibaldi's memory were used as evidence.
The implication was that since Bester controls the Corps to some
degree, no Corps telepath would cooperate. But Lyta is now a Corps
member, officially anyway
("The Exercise of Vital Powers")
and is certainly no friend of Bester's. To refute her credentials
in court, he'd have to reveal the deep-cover program he's using to
give her the appearance of Corps membership.

Sheridan told Bester he knew what it was like to lose
someone, only to find them again and lose them again, clearly a
reference to Anna
("Z'ha'dum.")
He said he'd never wish that on anyone. But
in a sense, he's putting Delenn through the same ordeal
over a much longer timespan: she lost him at Z'ha'dum, got him back
thanks to Lorien, and knows that in 20 years she'll lose him again
("Falling Toward Apotheosis.")

The Alliance was most likely what Delenn was referring
to in
"War Without End part 2"
when she told Sheridan that they'd built something that would endure
for a thousand years. Whether that figure was just a generality on
her part or reflected additional knowledge about the future isn't
clear.

Sheridan and Londo have followed similar paths: both of
them rose up against their own governments to fight Shadow influence,
and both were helped in their quests by resistance movements working
against those governments (the Mars resistance in Sheridan's case,
the Narns in Londo's.) Both of them arranged to have the captive
populations freed after defeating the old order. Are their fates
going to be similar as well? Londo sacrificed himself to kill his
Keeper and allow Sheridan and Delenn to escape
("War Without End part 2.")
Will Sheridan make a similar sacrifice to save someone? One could
argue he already has, by dying on Z'ha'dum to save Centauri Prime
("Z'ha'dum.")

All the major ambassadors on Babylon 5 have been offered leadership
roles of some sort, in fact. In addition to Sheridan and Londo,
G'Kar was offered leadership of his people in
"The Long Night."
Delenn was elected leader of the Minbari in
"Babylon Squared."
And Sinclair became leader of the Minbari of 1000 years past in
"War Without End part 2."
Kosh is apparently an exception, though for all anyone knows, he
already was the leader of the Vorlons.

Perhaps not coincidentally, all the major ambassadors have been willing
to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Delenn was willing to
die to stop the Minbari civil war
("Moments of Transition.")
Londo was ready to give up his life to save Centauri Prime from the
Vorlon planetkiller
("Into the Fire.")
Sheridan ordered a suicide run to stop Earth from being razed by a
defense platform
("Endgame.")
G'Kar offered to return to Narn and face certain death to save the
families of the Narn on Babylon 5
("A Day in the Strife.")
Kosh forfeited his life when he arranged for the Vorlon fleet to
attack the Shadows
("Interludes and Examinations.")

Ivanova apparently only gets promotions when her
commanding officers leave: she went from Lt. Commander to Commander
when Sinclair left Babylon 5, and from Commander to Captain when
Sheridan resigned Earthforce.

Has Babylon 5 reverted to Earth ownership? If so, who's
in command now that Sheridan is no longer a member of Earthforce?
Presumably Corwin is in charge temporarily until a new commander
is assigned.

Both Clark and Sheridan were succeeded by Russian women
after their deaths (though Sheridan didn't remain dead.) Both women
have similar first names.

President Luchenko's comment about "the better angels of
our nature" was a reference to the last line of
Abraham Lincoln's
first inaugural address,
in which he urged the United States not to lapse into civil war.

"If this had been it, I would've walked away with a
great big smile and a full heart."

Exactly..it doesn't *end* the story, as people kept saying, "Oh,
the arc is being finished in year 4," it provides a sense of
*resolution*, which is different altogether, and leaves plenty of room
for other planned stuff.

President Luchenko's accent sounded fake.
I love comments like that.

Beata, who played the President, is a native-born Russian.

Ed. note: Beata Pozniak was actually born in Gdansk, Poland, not
Russia. The accent is her own, however.

If Marcus had survived, it would have been a
copout.
As for Marcus, that's precisely the point. If we do
what we do to Ivanova, then let her get bailed out, then do the same
for Marcus, it becomes a double-cheat, and that's not fair to do to the
audience. If you bail her out but only at great cost to someone else,
it's not a cheat on either level.

And yeah, generally, if you follow the threads, you can pick up
on where things are going. It's something I learned on Murder, She
Wrote, where at the end, when the killer's been revealed, you should be
able to back up the tape, watch it again, and this time see all the
little bits that point to his (or her) identity. It's basically about
playing fair with the audience.

It was hard doing that to the character [of
Marcus], but it was
the only way to handle the situation with any integrity and honesty.
Very hard to write.

Marcus was a martyr waiting to happen, looking for something
worth throwing his life away on because he could find little worth in
his own.

"In the scene with Franklin and the very upset Ivanova,
when she uses the word "boffed" (like Marcus), was this intended as
just a cute scene or a hint that the transfer would have had lasting
effects?"

No, nothing more was intended than what was seen.

Why did Lennier tell Delenn what Ivanova said?
Because Lennier is quite familiar with the concept of unrequited
love, and because hope burns eternal.

Which is probably the most damnable part of unrequited love.

Was the shot of Claudia Christian at the end from
another episode, inserted when she decided not to return?
No, that's a new shot (Claudia at the window). She was shot for
that episode for that voice-over...we just changed one line. The basic
thrust was that she was going to take some time to *decide* whether to
take on B5, or to take on a Warlock class destroyer. So we just went
with the decision.

What was different about the closing shot?
The only really different thing about the shot is the
length of it; usually our shots average 5-8 seconds; that one was about
15 seconds, so you have more time to get used to what you're seeing,
and absorb it, and make it real.

Everything's wrapped up now. What's left to do in
season five?
Things that *could* show up (leaving in some ambiguity just to keep some
surprises):

The start of the telepath war
The start of drakh war
Londo's fate on Centauri Prime
The first year trying to make the Interstellar Alliance work
Inter-faction fighting among the Alliance members
The development of Mars as an independent state
The legacy of William Edgars' black projects
Fallout from the civil war, and the feelings about it
How Lennier, Sheridan and Delenn will get along now

How's that just for starters?

Will we see Luchenko again?
Would love to use her again.

The Rangers are independent in authority, answering
only to Delenn and Sheridan and the members of the Alliance council and
advisory board. (In roughly descending order.) But their jurisdiction
is exclusively in interplanetary situations between various member
races. Each member race has the sovereign authority to govern its
people in its own way.

The closest comparison is that overall, the states are free to
enact their own laws, but the US Government has sole claim over
international matters. Except here the states would have far more
autonomy than is currently the rule; more like pre-Civil War America.

If you'd known there'd be a fifth season when
you wrote the episode, would Delenn's speech have changed?
I don't know if I would've done her speech differently or not,
to be honest...knowing it now, I'm not sure how I'd improve it.

Is Sheridan and Delenn's bed horizontal or tipped up
in the Minbari style?
They will alternate, as you'll see soon....